William Freke

William Freke (1662–1744) was an English mystical writer, of Wadham College, Oxford and barrister of the Temple. Freke first comes to attention as a Socinian Unitarian who suffered at the hands of Parliament in 1694 for his anti-Trinitarian beliefs, and later recanted. William Freke sent his Brief but Clear Confutation of the Doctrine of the Trinity to both Houses of Parliament, was fined and the book burnt. The same happened the next year to John Smith (1695), a clockmaker who had written a similar pamphlet. In 1703 he published Lingua Tersancta. Or, a Most Sure and Compleat Allegorick Dictionary to the Holy Language of the Spirit. Presumably unbalanced, Freke proclaimed himself the great Elijah in 1709. Life A younger son of Thomas Freke or Freeke, he was born at Hannington Hall, Wiltshire; his mother was Cicely, daughter of Robert Hussey of Stourpaine, Dorset. He was at school at Somerford (? Somerford Keynes), Wiltshire, and early in 1677, having attained the age of fourteen, he became a gentleman commoner of Wadham College, Oxford. After two or three years he went to study at the Temple, and was called to the bar, but does not seem to have practised.